As traffic continues to grow, the alternative search engine DuckDuckGo tending to anti-AI sentiment with the launch of new browser extensions that allow users to specify a non-AI search experience, noai.duckduckgo.comas their default search engine.
Once activated, users will be redirected to DuckDuckGo’s AI-free search page, with AI-powered answers, chat queries and fewer AI images in search results, the company claims. Extensions are currently available Chrome and Firefox users. Meanwhile, people who switch to the DuckDuckGo web browser already retain their AI settings, even if they clear their browser history.
The company says the extensions are designed to give people a consistent AI-free search experience — something that’s harder to do these days, especially after Google. announced the search engine’s AI-first update at its developer conference in early May.
Traffic to DuckDuckGo since then has been on the rise. Last week, the company noted that web visits to its non-AI search page were up nearly 30% week-over-week, US app installs were up 18.1% week-over-week, and US iOS app installs peaked at 69.9% week-over-week growth.
These trends followed the news that Google overhaul its search box, the biggest change to the search engine in over 25 years. Now, instead of returning links at the top of the page, Google will prefer to send users to AI-generated search overviews, making it a more interactive experience that can generate visualizations, charts, graphs, or even widgets as needed. Questions after AI Insights will lead users into the AI Mode chat experience. The traditional “10 blue links” that defined Google in its early days are more thought-out and visible beneath all this AI-powered productivity.
But not everyone is happy with AI being the default, so some are moving towards it Alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo, Kagi and others.
DuckDuckGo says that traffic for it Search page without AI It tripled on Thursday, May 28, 2026 — the new high-water mark since Google’s search announcement — and the numbers are still climbing. The company notes that growth is not coming fast either. Instead, visits averaged about 84% above baseline, suggesting a more sustainable change.
In addition to the new “AI-free” search Chrome and Firefox extensions, DuckDuckGo will soon update the original DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera.
It should be noted that DuckDuckGo is not an anti-AI company. The company still offers its own AI chatbot with access to many popular models, and subscription plan The VPN service provides access to the latest models and other tools, such as identity theft recovery and personal data deletion services.
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